Star Grass - light issue?

[sallyjano]

My star grass is sad and spindly looking and has basically not grown in weeks. I started PPS Pro yesterday and am hoping that will fix it but my fear is that I don't have enough light and that's the root problem. What do you guys think?

Tank: 60g long. Plants about 22" from the light.

Light: 2x54w T5HO bulbs and 2x15w T8s (plant growth spectrum). So 2.3wpg total - maybe 35-40 PAR.

Dosing: PPS Pro (as of yesterday!) and Excel 7ml daily.

Do you think that's enough light and the ferts will get the star grass going? Or just not enough light.....?

Thanks.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Well it's a moderate light needy plant, so over 30 PAR is needed. I'm not sure if that excel dosing is enough. Might want to increase it. Or look into dosing glut (metricide 14) as it's about 2x stronger than excel and much cheaper. CO2 injection is the best, however. At least 20ppm. PPS-Pro is a good move too. Might take a week or two to see if that has any positive results. When you make adjustments to a tank, it doesn't manifest in the plants immediately. It's usually adjust, and wait a week or two to see what changes are affecting what, unfortunately.

 

[sallyjano]

Well it's a moderate light needy plant, so over 30 PAR is needed. I'm not sure if that excel dosing is enough. Might want to increase it. Or look into dosing glut (metricide 14) as it's about 2x stronger than excel and much cheaper. CO2 injection is the best, however. At least 20ppm. PPS-Pro is a good move too. Might take a week or two to see if that has any positive results. When you make adjustments to a tank, it doesn't manifest in the plants immediately. It's usually adjust, and wait a week or two to see what changes are affecting what, unfortunately.

OK thanks. Questions......

Re the glut - the bottle says 6ml daily for my tank. I upped it a little due to algae but you think not enough. How much would you use? I am cautious because I have Vals, but hey if they melt they will acclimate again later right?

Also, FYI I did buy Metricide 14. Just not finished the excel bottle yet...

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I'm not too familiar with vals as i haven't kept them before in an excel/glut dosed tank. But I think you can slowly acclimate them to the presence of glut by incrementally increasing the dose. All my tanks right now that are in the moderate light range and above are CO2 injected. So my expertise with glut is limited. I use it as a supplement to my CO2 or in my low tech tanks where minimum dosing is required. But if glut is your only source of carbon in a moderate to high light tank, you have to go way above recommended excel dosing.

Rivercats, Old Scales, and a few other here in this forum would be better at giving you a better glut dosing regimen.

But for now, you can Google it. Here's one thread I found just by doing a search. As you can see, you can really go much higher on the glut to see any meaningful results in lieu of actual CO2 injection.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=567082

 

[sallyjano]

I'm not too familiar with vals as i haven't kept them before in an excel/glut dosed tank. But I think you can slowly acclimate them to the presence of glut by incrementally increasing the dose. All my tanks right now that are in the moderate light range and above are CO2 injected. So my expertise with glut is limited. I use it as a supplement to my CO2 or in my low tech tanks where minimum dosing is required. But if glut is your only source of carbon in a moderate to high light tank, you have to go way above recommended excel dosing.

Rivercats, Old Scales, and a few other here in this forum would be better at giving you a better glut dosing regimen.

But for now, you can Google it. Here's one thread I found just be doing a search. As you can see, you can really go much higher on the glut to see any meaningful results on lieu of actual CO2 injection.

Excel dosing - daily or every other day?

Thanks Brian. In the past I've had people tell me how much they use but mine isn't a heavily planted tank, and the light is only the low end of medium so I thought dosing the bottle instructions would be ok. (Plus I worry about what it must be like for the fish...!).

I will try increasing it slowly.

Thanks!

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Yeah I understand. But if you're not up to it, then perhaps stargrass is too needy for your setup? 60g's is a lot of volume, so that unfortunately dilutes the glut to a level that wouldn't be that good to anything other than a low tech / low light tank with low light tolerant plants. Just my thoughts as I haven't tried stargrass either. But you can get an idea of a certain plant's needs by viewing its profile and by seeing what others say.

Here's a good resource:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/myPlants.php?do=view&p=88&n=Star_Grass_Heteranthera_zosterifolia

 

[sallyjano]

Yeah I understand. But if you're not up to it, then perhaps stargrass is too needy for your setup? 60g's is a lot of volume, so that unfortunately dilutes the glut to a level that wouldn't be that good to anything other than a low tech / low light tank with low light tolerant plants. Just my thoughts as I haven't tried stargrass either. But you can get an idea of a certain plant's needs by viewing its profile and by seeing what others say.

Here's a good resource:
Star Grass (Heteranthera zosterifolia)

No I'm up to it!! If increasing is what's needed I am happy to increase. I have read that info on planted tank (thanks for sharing though) plus a lot of others. Just trying to figure out what works for my tank and plants.